13% of the Irish Population has a Disability according to the Central Statistics Office

On the 1st November 2012, The Central Statistics Office published a document entitled “Our Bill of Health” which examines in more detail the definitive results of Census 2011 in relation to health, disability and carers in Ireland.

The report states that 13 per cent of the population or almost 600,000 people in Ireland have a disability (This has increased from 9.3% in the 2006 census). Here are some of the key findings from the 2011 Census and the Our Bill of Health report:

A total of 595,335 persons, accounting for 13.0 per cent of the population, had a disability in April 2011. Of these 289,728 (48.7%) were male while 305,607 (51.3%) were female.

The type of disabilities (breakdown of the 13% of the Irish population) can be broken down as follows:

9.7% - An intellectual disability

23% - A difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating

41.1% - A difficulty with basic physical activities

16.1% - A psychological or emotional condition

8.7% - Blindness or a serious vision impairment

15.5% - Deafness or a serious hearing impairment

46.2% - Other disability, including chronic illness

As people get older the percentage of people living with a disability increases. The statistics indicate that the disability rate is less than 10 per cent for those in their twenties, rates increase steadily for persons in their forties and fifties to reach over 20 per cent by age 60; from age 70 on rates increase more sharply for both males and females with 75.1 per cent of all females aged 85 and over having a disability.

22.3% of people between that ages of 60-64 have a disability.

The counties with the greatest number of persons with a disability were those with the largest populations led by Dublin city with 78,610 persons and County Cork with 47,274. Counties Leitrim, Longford and Waterford City, with the overall smallest populations, had the fewest persons with a disability.

People with a disability were also much less likely to have completed third level education, with 24.5 per cent being educated to this level, compared with 38.7 per cent of the overall population.

Of the total of 542,277 people aged 15 and over with a disability, 112,502 or 20.7 per cent were at work. This compares with 50.1 per cent for the overall population aged 15 and over who were at work.

The unemployment rate amongst disabled people was 30.8 per cent, compared with 19 per cent for the overall population.

Also for further information on why accessibility is important, check out a recent article we wrote 'Why Consider Accessibility' which indicates that it is not just people with disabilities who benefit from accessibility.